Reading the last few posts, I feared the death bells are tolling for Naturopathic Medicine.

But wait! Didn\'t California just license N.D.s? Surely Bastyr would not be planning a satellite school if the interest were waning?

Backing up a bit from the flakes and supplement racketeers within alternative medicine, have a look at the health care situation as a whole.

We\'re looking at a health care crisis, folks. The obesity epidemic isn\'t in the baby boomers, it\'s in the generation Xers! The very people who are supposed to bankroll the boomers retirement are going to be on dialysis (obesity gives 4x the risk of diabetes).

Add to that the fact the estrogen replacement, which was the best thing since slice bread, turns out to be a bad idea. Leaving menopausal women (which are, as we all know, the biggest demographic for alternative medicine) high and dry.

But wait! The MDs and DOs will be filling the gaps, pushing aside mountains of patients to counsel each overweight individual on a complete dietary program.

Well, actually, their plate is full. Read the Washington Post article (Aug.14, 2004) on the increase in ob/gyn insurance costs. It will now cost an obstetrician over 100,000 a year to insure for malpractice, a 41% increase in a single year. Many of the Ob/gyns are considering \"going bare\" which will shift the burden onto the hospitals for any errors. I remember hearing this about Nevada several years back. It isn\'t a question of getting flaky vs. conventional care, it\'s going to be a question of getting care at all.

Speaking of flaky care, yes it happens. But in comparision with the new estimates of 200,000 hospital deaths from preventable causes, it seems mild.

The major complaint leveled against alternative practitioners is that they are a waste of time and money. The major complaint leveled against conventional care is that the side effects can kill you.

The newest information about the research done by the drug companies is that much of it was selective. Much of the scientific basis of conventional therapies may simply be slick marketing. A stunning series of meta-analyses about depression found that half the research was too shoddy to be acceptable, the double-blind system didn\'t work, and that as a whole anti-depressants showed very minimal effects against an active (side effect producing) placebo. Read the people screaming about Effexor in the general posting section. That\'s conventional medicine.

In contrast, Naturopathic has won some serious battles, moving a tiny profession onto the national stage long before it was ready. The Naturopaths (4,000 tops) are compared to the chiropractors (50,000) and the MDs (500,000). They seem a little flaky, a little too much in fantasy land. Because most of them turned down much higher paying jobs in the healthcare field to do what they love and what they believe in. Flakes? Maybe. How about dreamers?

By the way, all that flaky stuff works. Even in the hospital. Often with few side effects and greater long term effects.

Let\'s not forget the history of osteopathic and chiropractic medicine, nor lose sight of the fact that the present system cannot handle greatly increased numbers of chronically ill patients. These are also patients that are seeking alternative over the counter therapies at enormous and increasing rates. Naturopathy is here to stay.

Just my 2 cents. Obviously I\'m biased, but at least I\'ll sign my full name (I always look for good career advice from anonymous people on the web, don\'t you?) Christopher Maloney, Naturopathic Doctor Augusta, Maine www.maloneymedical.com Individualized research available for a fee. Informational only, I cannot treat or diagnose via the web.